Metamorphosis

With our move to the country, our household underwent a radical change. All at once my parents’ life, so gay and lighthearted until then, took a more somber turn. My father had paid us little notice up to that time, for he considered bringing up children to be a woman’s and not a man’s affair. He was more concerned with Anyuta than with the other children, for she was the eldest, and she was a very amusing child. He loved to find occasions for indulging her. He sometimes took her sledding in winter, and liked to boast about her to our guests. When her naughti-ness went beyond all bounds and exasperated the servants past endurance, they sometimes went to Father to complain about her. But he would turn the whole thing into a joke, and Anyuta understood perfectly that even though he sometimes put a stern expression on his face for appear-ance’s sake, he was inwardly ready to laugh her naughtiness away.